Donald Trump has declared war on the liberal media and there’s nothing they can do about it. To the delight of millions of Americans, he has scolded them for their bias and mocked their hypocrisy. Best of all, he is showing just how unimportant they will be to his presidency.

Despite a soaring stock market, rising consumer confidence and other indications that the nation is optimistic about the Trump presidency, the liberal press continues to wallow in gloom.

The media has a great amount of control over our society and voters. But they may have overplayed their hand in opposition to Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency, and they lost to one of the few who not only will take them to task. He will relish the fight.

Trump is setting new ground rules, producing the kind of disruption to the status quo urged by his backers. Media operations will retaliate by slanting coverage of the president-elect but, let’s face it, they’ve already hit them with their worst. Another scathing piece from the New Yorker or CNN has about as much punch as watered-down ginger ale.

There are going to be very few people who were not already strongly opposed to Trump that will care if the big players in American media work overtime to make him look bad. And most of those who support Trump will only take those efforts as proof of their man’s strength and proof of the media’s bias and weakness.

The New York Times can double down on its critical Trump coverage if it wants. But if it does so without a solid reason that will appeal to people on both sides of the aisle, all the doubling-down will accomplish is to further tarnish the Gray Lady’s reputation and lose more subscribers.